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EVAN ONLY KNOWS
by Rhys Bowen
St. Martin's Minotaur, March 2003
226 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312301138


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

For those of you who think cozy when you hear about this series, think again. Miss Marple and the other tabbies of St. Mary Mead would never recognize the setting, the characters, or the stories of these books. The village where Evan works may be small, but outsiders bring nefarious and evil things into it and Evan must confront their existence frequently.

In this book the scourge has come with a vengeance for the British government suspect foot-and-mouth disease in the sheep herds and they intend to destroy them all to make certain it doesnıt spread. The livelihood of the farmers of the area will be destroyed. They expect Evan to side with them, but his orders are to force them to obey. Caught in a terrible dilemma, he wrangles leave and takes Bronwen south to meet his mother.

So, for this novel, the scene shifts to Swansea in South Wales. The place is equally well established, but it is an entirely different sort of place from Llanfair. Swansea is the big city where factories dominate the landscape and the poor labor in them if they are lucky. There are council estates, poverty, and hopelessness and with these come certain kinds of crime, most notably drugs.

However, when Evan and Bronwen arrive, the big news is the rape-murder of Alison Turnbull, daughter of a City Councilor. Then they hear that the police have arrested Tony Mancini, the kid who shot Evanıs father during a drug deal some years before. He had been a juvenile and the judge had believed that he was just doing what his gang boss told him, so he only got five years in a Young Offenders Facility. He was back on the streets and had been arrested running from the Turnbull home.

The police are delighted to put away a cop-killer and Evansı mother is very pleased as well. Perversely Evans is not certain the evidence is solid enough. He gets involved in the investigation at the risk of losing his career and maybe even Bronwen. So instead of a policeman investigating as part of a team, he becomes a wild card in order to assure himself of what happened. In every way this story is a reversal of the usual Evansı novels.

The characters, as always, are very enjoyable to know. I would say it is like going home, but they are in a different context this time and we get to see how they react to different stimuli. Evan, like anyone, becomes a little boy again as his mother fixes him huge meals and urges him to come home early at night. Itıs really hard for him to say no to her. For a few days they visit Bronwenıs family and things are nearly as bad there as her affluent parents do not quite approve of a Welsh policeman for a son-in-law. We see a different view of both Evans and Bronwen.

The plot is intriguing and sinuous. It seems straightforward at first, but then more and more facts seem to take Evans in directions he had not anticipated. The reader may get to the solution first but no matter. We are not weighted down with the grief Evans carries for his father.

It is always a risk to move oneıs characters out of a familiar locale and let them learn and grow in a new place, but, as Ms. Bowen shows us, when it works, it makes for a very good story and developing characters who continue to intrigue and attract us. So do not reject this book thinking it is s a gentle story of life in a small town. It will quietly and calmly take you to the mean streets of South Wales and the darker side of life. But the violence is off-stage and hinted at rather than thrust into the readerıs face. All readers can find enjoyment here.

Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, January 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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